


Fever Dreams and Mushroom Tea

by GoatCheese



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: And symbolic lmao, F/F, Fluff, Mildest body horror warning? There’s nothing graphic but Sucy’s dream is weird, Sick Character, Sucy is Big Gay, There’s hints of Suakko i.e Sucy has a crush on Akko, but she starts falling for Lotte too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 05:43:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20204680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoatCheese/pseuds/GoatCheese
Summary: Sucy catches a cold when the trio is supposed to head out into town for the day, and Lotte stays behind to take care of her, even though Sucy absolutely doesn’t need anyone to do that for her.





	Fever Dreams and Mushroom Tea

Akko’s shouting woke Sucy from the light sleep she’d managed to fall into just an hour or two ago. She’d had a sleepless night thanks to the cold she’d come down with late yesterday evening, and now instead of the coughing waking her up, it was this idiot. She glared at her, visible eye barely open, though of course that did nothing to reduce Akko’s excitement.

“Sucy! Hurry up and get ready! I want to get to town as soon as possible, I bet Amanda and the others are already ther-”

“I’m not going,” she replied, voice far raspier than usual. Akko was clearly about to protest, so she continued. “I’m sick, genius.”

“Oh! Don’t you have a potion that could help?” Akko looked towards Sucy’s potion shelf, gaze moving across the large collection of glass bottles with various colorful liquids inside of them, most of which were poisons (Akko had once told Sucy that she’d always imagined poisons to all be murky green, not the bright and inviting colors that lined Sucy’s shelves. Sucy, though, knew the colors were quite appropriate: after all, bright colors were how nature advertised toxicity.)

“Unfortunately, there’s no cure for colds, magic or otherwise,” she said, closing her eyes again. And it _ was _unfortunate; despite her apparent indifference, Sucy had been looking forward to heading into town, even if doing so with their friend group always got more than a little hectic.

“What, really? Wow, I guess there are some things that even magic can’t do...yet, anyway! I’m sure there’s a magical cure just waiting to be discovered!” Akko was as annoyingly optimistic as always. Eventually, though, Sucy felt her step away from her bed and heard her digging around on her own side of the room, presumably in a hurry to get ready. As stupid as it was, Sucy felt a strange pang inside. Somewhere, there was a part of her that wished Akko would stay behind and take care of her. _ That _ was going to have to be squashed immediately. Sucy never needed anyone to take care of her when she was sick, so why would she be wanting _ Akko _of all people to do so now? Of course, she knew why, though she wished she didn’t.

Before she could fall back to sleep, she felt yet another presence looming over her. Her eyes shot open just as Lotte began to speak. 

“Hey, Sucy. Are you alright? Do you have a fever?” She asked, voice soft as always. She lifted her hand and let it hang above Sucy’s forehead for a moment, clearly wanting to check her temperature. If it was anyone else, Sucy would have snapped at them to back off, but she could rarely bring herself to be mean to Lotte. She wasn’t like Akko, who could take the worst of her teasing in stride. She was gentle and caring, maybe too much for her own good. So when her hand hovered there, Sucy didn’t glare at her, letting her lower it down to her forehead without complaint. 

“You don’t feel hot, that’s good,” Lotte said, letting her hand drop back down to her side. “Not warm, either. Cool to the touch, like always,” she continued with a small smile. Sucy gave a short grunt in agreement and then rolled over onto her side. At least she would be able to catch up on some shut-eye while her teammates were out. Right now, though, Akko was making too much of a ruckus trying to get ready for even the dead to sleep.

It took more time than she would have liked, but eventually Akko and Lotte left the room, leaving Sucy to the peace and quiet of lonesomeness. Ideally, she would spend the day sleeping, recovering enough by the evening that she could get dinner and such without anyone having to do anything for her. That was the plan, at least, but her stuffy nose and nagging cough made it difficult to fall asleep. She tried rolling onto her other side, her stomach, and then her back, but none of that helped her breathing situation. She propped her pillow up against her headboard and sat a bit upright, which provided some relief. Still, she sat there for about half an hour with no sign of sleep coming over her. She was still wide awake when the door creaked open and Lotte tiptoed in, holding a cafeteria tray with some muffins and a few other baked goods on it.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I wake you?” She said once she noticed Sucy’s eye following her as she made her way towards her desk to set the tray down.

“No, I’ve been awake since you two left. Speaking of which, what are you doing here?”

“Well...it didn’t feel right leaving you alone while you were sick, so I came back…”

“You didn’t have to do that. I’m fine on my own.”

Lotte turned her whole body to face Sucy, clasping her hands together. “That’s what I thought you’d say...I’m sorry. I was a bit worried about you, so I thought I’d stay, but I really should have thought more about what you would want. I can still head into town if you’d prefer to be alone.”

Sucy watched her for a few seconds before shifting to try and get more comfortable on the pillow. “If it’ll make you feel better, you can stay. I don’t care either way.”

Lotte gave a small smile and turned back to the tray. “Yes, it will make me feel better...do you want anything to eat? I brought a few things from the cafeteria.”

“No, I just want to get some sleep, honestly. Of course, Akko just had to wake me up after I’d finally fallen back asleep.” Quite disgustingly, a hint of fondness had managed to creep into her voice at her mention of Akko. This cold must have been affecting her mind’s ability to think clearly. She had to cover up her momentary lapse, though she doubted Lotte had even noticed. “I wonder how much trouble that idiot is going to get into without either of us there to act as impulse control.”

Lotte laughed, a noise that sounded as melodious as a song. “You’re right...though even when we are around, she still manages to get into trouble. It’s actually kind of impressive...do you want another pillow? That might make you a little more comfortable.”

“Sure, you might be right.”

Lotte climbed partway up the bunk bed ladder and grabbed her pillow, which she then walked over to Sucy’s bed and set up on top of the other one. “There, now you have a little more cushioning!”

Sucy leaned back into the pillows, briefly smelling a hint of Lotte’s pine-scented body wash that must linger on her pillow. The two pillows were certainly an improvement over just one. “Thanks,” she mumbled, closing her eyes. “But what are you going to do all alone here while I sleep?”

“I can reread some Nightfall books! I’ve been wanting to go back and analyze some of the symbolism Annabel’s been using in her volumes…”

“I bet you only wanted to stay behind to read,” Sucy said, though it was clearly in jest. Lotte gasped.

“That’s completely untrue! If I wanted to read so badly, I would have just taken a book to town with me!”

Sucy laughed, though her usual cackle was interjected by a cough. “It’s fine by me, as long as you don’t start reading them out loud and making me listen.”

“I would never do that while you couldn’t get away,” Lotte said, following it up with a giggle.

“That’s the only way you’d be able to get me to listen.”

“Sucy! It’s such a good series…I bet you’d love it if you gave it a chance.”

Once Lotte started reading and the room was pretty much silent aside from the sound of her turning pages, Sucy was finally able to fall asleep. Her dreams were strange, even for her, and she was fairly certain one of them had something to do with Nightfall. That wasn’t something she’d ever choose to dream about, but it wasn’t as if it was particularly jarring. Things _ did _ get a bit weirder when the heads of the characters that she assumed were her brain’s idea of Belle and Edgar began turning into a mass of tentacles that then began to self-cannibalize the rest of their bodies. Then Sucy herself was there, and the room they were all standing in began to shrink, the walls closing in until they almost crushed her. Just as they were about to, she threw her hands out and the dream changed again, leaving her alone in the courtyard of Luna Nova. There was a cluster of mushrooms, _ Hydnellum peckii _to be exact, growing in front of the large statue at the center of the yard. She leaned down and picked one out of the ground, in turn pulling up Akko, who had the mushroom attached to her head in place of her ponytail. Sucy backed away as Akko opened her arms wide, and then turned into Lotte, who was wearing a peach dress. Sucy opened her mouth to say something but found that she couldn’t speak as mushrooms began to sprout from inside her mouth. Try as she may, she couldn’t get them out.

Before the dream could change again, Sucy was knocked back into consciousness by a coughing fit that wracked her body. It seemed to be a good bit later in the day, but she wasn't sure just how long she'd been out. The sky was still bright, though, and if she had to guess, she'd say it was around noon. She brought her arm up to cough into it, noticing after she lowered it that Lotte was now standing beside her bed.

"Are you alright? That sounded really bad..." She said, bringing her hands together. Sucy tried to seem nonchalant about the whole thing, though her throat was now stinging from the coughing.

"I'm fine, just a little cough."

"You don't look so good..."

"Wow, thanks," Sucy said, pursing her lips.

"Oh, you know what I mean..do you feel any better? Or any worse?"

Sucy brought her hand up and rubbed her exposed eye, blinking a few times as if to clear the sleepiness from it. In all honesty, she felt worse after that nap. She didn't want Lotte to overreact or anything, though. "I feel the same."

Lotte pressed her hand against Sucy's forehead, not hesitating this time as she did earlier. She frowned and moved her hand down to Sucy's cheek. Sucy narrowed her eyes.

"Sorry, I was just making sure...you feel hot now. I think you've developed a fever...this might be a flu, not a cold..." She brought her hand back, clasping them together once again.

"Whatever. I'll be fine."

"You should probably drink something. You haven't had anything all day, have you?"

"Um...no, I haven't." She wasn't aware of being thirsty until Lotte mentioned it, but now once she thought about it, her mouth felt dry. "_ Dry as Diana's sense of humor," _ she thought to herself and smiled.

"Why are you smiling? Sucy, you could dehydrate, you know! Especially since you're sick, you really need to keep hydrated!"

"Sorry, sorry, I was thinking about something else. Yeah, I could use some water..." Maybe not having drunk anything all day was also contributing to the pain in her throat.

Lotte nodded and headed out the door, looking like a girl on a mission. Sucy felt...odd, asking her to go get water for her. What happened to being self-sufficient and not needing anyone to take care of her? Lotte returned after just a few minutes, and Sucy had to wonder if she'd _ ran _to get the water bottle that she thrust into her hands.

"Thanks," she said, opening the bottle and taking a long swig, downing half the water in one go. It was nice and cold, which felt pretty wondrous going down her throat. She finished the rest of the water a moment later, and Lotte gave a sheepish smile.

"I suppose I should have gotten another bottle, huh?"

"No, I'm good now." Almost immediately after saying so, she started coughing again, wincing as her already raw throat was irritated yet again. To top it all off, she noticed afterward that her nose had begun to run. She waved a hand towards her desk, the white sleeve of her nightgown draping down from her wrist, and mumbled "tissue, please," while turning her face away. Lotte complied, and Sucy blew her nose and then promptly sneezed. Lotte giggled.

“What’s so funny?” Sucy asked, squinting. Lotte covered her mouth and tried to stop herself from laughing.

“Nothing, just...you sneeze a little bit like a kitten!”

“I do no such thing,” she said, crossing her arms and trying not to smile. “Say that again and I might be testing potions on _ you _next time!”

“No, no, I won’t say it again! I’ll just think it.” Her smile was so bright that Sucy could swear she felt the warmth from it in her chest. _ Probably just the fever, actually.. _.

“You know what...I bet some tea would help!” Lotte slammed her fist into the palm of her hand with a glint of excitement in her eyes. “I can run and make you some!”

“You know, you’re right. I could go for some mushroom tea right about now…”

Lotte’s smile wavered just a bit. “Mushroom...tea?”

“Mm. My favorite.”

“...Of course it is. Well, I was thinking more along the lines of green tea...I doubt the school has any mushroom tea. I’ve never actually heard of that…”

“I have some dried ones that could be made into tea.”

“Oh, where are they?” Lotte seemed to perk up, but Sucy raised her hand in a placating gesture.

“I was just joking...I mean, I do like mushroom tea, and I do have some mushrooms, but I’m not going to make you go through all the trouble of making it.”

“It’s no problem, though! I don’t have anything else to do besides read, and I _ did _stay behind to take care of you!”

Sucy rolled her eyes and blew a strand of hair out of her face. “I don’t need to be taken care of, you know. I’m not Akko.”

“I know, I didn’t mean that you couldn’t take care of yourself, just...I wanted to help. Don't take this the wrong way, but...I figured you'd mostly had to deal with being sick on your own in the past...I wanted to help you out this time because I care about you a lot...you're my best friend, and it makes me happy to be able to help my friends, in whatever way I can..." 

Sucy blinked. So she was Lotte's best friend, huh? That was the first time anyone had ever called her that. She looked down at her lap, a myriad of emotions swirling in her head. She felt the same way, of course, but she'd never vocalized it. That was just too far out of her comfort zone. But this...maybe this was just right. "...If you really want to make me the tea, you'll need to use my mortar and pestle to grind the mushrooms into a powder. It's there on my desk. And the mushrooms are in my cabinet, on the shelf second from the top on the left-hand side. They're in a purple jar. Just let me make sure that you've got the right ones before you accidentally poison me."

"Thank you, Sucy," she said, even though it was Sucy who should be thanking her. She made her way to the cabinet and was about to open it up before Sucy shouted out "wait, I forgot something!" She reached for her wand that sat on the desk, twirled it in the air, pointed it at the dresser and said a few words. There was a "poof" of smoke from the dresser and a few magical particles glittering in the air around it.

"What was that?" Lotte said, waving her hand in front of her face to clear away the bit of smoke that had risen towards her.

"It was a spell that would have turned your face into a toad's if you opened the cabinet. It was there for Akko. I figured that curiosity would get the best of her one day and she'd try to open it, heh heh heh."

"Sucy! You're so mean to her," Lotte said, and though she was shaking her head she was still smiling.

"She can handle it. In fact, I think she enjoys my pranks at this point."

Lotte opened up the cabinet and stood on her tiptoes to look at the shelf where Sucy said the mushrooms would be. Sucy could tell from the look on her face that the mushrooms must have been out of her reach. She watched as Lotte took her wand off of her sash and poked it into the cabinet, and Sucy heard the clinking of it hitting against glass bottles. Once the bottle she was trying to get was close enough to the edge, she put her wand away and grabbed it, closing the cabinet and turning towards Sucy, who was cackling under her breath.

"I guess you can't reach stuff on the top of the shelves at stores, huh?"

"Sucy..."

"Do you have to use a step stool when you're helping out at your parent's shop?"

Lotte puffed out her cheeks slightly. "Maybe..." Sucy cackled again, this time no longer under her breath, but then started coughing. "See, that's what you get!" Lotte said, holding up her finger. She then walked over to and sat down at Sucy's desk, carefully moving some of her poison-making supplies out of the way. Once she stopped coughing, Sucy looked over at the jar that Lotte held in her hands, reading the small, faded label near the center of the jar. 

“Yup, those are the ones.”

Lotte nodded and sat down at the desk, pulling Sucy’s mortar and pestle towards herself and carefully placing some mushrooms into the bowl. Sucy watched as she ground them up into a powder, letting her know when it was fine enough. After that, Lotte picked up the bowl and headed out of the room, promising to hurry back as soon as the tea was done. That left Sucy alone in the room for the third time that day, and though the first time she’d been so grateful for the quiet, now she couldn’t wait for Lotte to come back, and it had little to do with her craving the mushroom tea.

When Lotte did come back, it was with two cups of tea in her hands and three more water bottles tucked under her arms. First, she set the teacups down on the desk, then she put the water bottles down towards the back of the deck, “for later!”

“Two cups?” Sucy said, picking one up and bringing it towards her face. Steam drifted up and she took a deep inhale, smiling at the aroma. Perfect.

“I decided that I’m going to try it too! If you like it so much, then I want to see what it’s like.”

Sucy gave the hint of a smile before she took a sip of her tea, letting it rest on her tongue for a moment as the delicious flavor of mushrooms coated her taste buds. The tea felt even better on her throat than the water did. She then lowered her cup slightly as she watched Lotte take a sip in turn. One corner of Sucy’s mouth twitched upward into a smirk as Lotte’s eyes widened, her face turning nearly paper white. She swallowed with noticeable effort, bringing a hand up to her mouth afterward, scrunching her eyes up and trying not to gag.

“How was it?” Sucy asked, trying to keep her tone as neutral as possible so as not to let Lotte know she’d watched her reaction.

“It was...interesting,” she managed, putting her cup back down on the tray. “I think I’ll stick to more...conventional tea flavors, though.”

Sucy laughed out loud at that, taking another sip of tea once she was done. “Thank you, though,” she said afterward, looking down into her cup, “for making it for me.”

“It was no problem! I just hope I did it right.”

“It’s perfect.” She looked back up to see Lotte’s face practically glowing with a smile. Her stomach did a flip, not unlike the way it sometimes did when Akko got too close to her. She told herself that she was probably just hungry. A glance towards the desk confirmed that the muffins, donuts, and biscuits Lotte had brought in earlier were still there.

“Want something?” Apparently, Lotte had caught her looking.

“I’ll take a muffin.”

Lotte picked up a muffin and handed it over, their fingers meeting as Sucy grabbed it. Sucy then yanked the muffin away, perhaps a bit too quickly, hoping that she wasn’t blushing or anything stupid like that. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t touched Lotte’s hand before, after all. It definitely wasn’t the big deal that her mind was making it out to be. She focused on eating the muffin, avoiding eye contact with Lotte.

“Do you want to go back to sleep now?” Lotte asked once Sucy had finished the muffin, her voice sounding the slightest bit hurt. It struck Sucy that she probably thought she’d done something wrong when she snatched the muffin from her like that.

“No,” she said, and that was the truth. She was still tired, yes, but she’d much rather spend time with Lotte than sleep more. After all, it was much easier to hang out when Akko wasn’t around interrupting. “Hm...what do you usually do when you’re sick? Besides, you know, read that...Nightfall.” She was going to say “that garbage,” but thought better of it. She knew Nightfall meant a lot to Lotte.

“When I was younger, I used to call out spirits to play with...that, and watch Moomin.”

“Moomin?”

“Oh, it’s a cartoon...well, an anime. Based on the books, and the comic strips!”

“...Never heard of it.”

“It was my favorite...hey, we could watch some online! If you want to, that is…”

Sucy shrugged. “I don’t have anything better to do.”

Lotte squealed with excitement and jumped to her feet, running over to grab her crystal ball. Once she had it, she hurried back over to Sucy’s bed. Sucy shifted so she was laying in bed again, pushed up against the wall, with her back propped up on the double pillows. She waited as Lotte got onto the bed next to her, unsurely at first but continuing without hesitation once she saw that Sucy wasn’t giving any sort of negative reaction. Once on the bed, she propped the crystal ball against her legs, which she drew up, and began pulling up a video.

“This is the first episode of the 90’s anime, my favorite version,” she began, and Sucy gave her a soft smile quite different from her usual devilish grin as she listened to her talk. Maybe getting sick today wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. A few minutes into the show, Lotte leaned her head on Sucy’s shoulder, and Sucy was almost grateful that she’d caught this cold.

**Author's Note:**

> I was actually inspired to write this after reading GhostLove’s “Herbal Medicine” and wondering what it would be like if the roles were reversed! Thanks for reading!


End file.
